McKennon was an avid Oregon Trail historian. He worked at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center giving instructional speeches. He also put together songs, stories and informational documents leading up the Oregon Trail's sesquicentennial (150th anniversary).

Dallas also worked with OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) creating "The Pappenheimers" - an instructional video series to help teach children German. His character lived out of a Volkswagen Van and would tell stories about relatives in Germany. Many of the episodes had clips of Germany as well as cartoons.